Genesis 11
11
The Tower of Babylon
1At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. # Lit one lip and the same words 2As people # Lit they migrated from the east, # Or migrated eastward they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. # Gn 10:10; 14:1; Dn 1:2 3They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. # Gn 14:10; Ex 2:3 4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. # Dt 1:28; 9:1; Ps 107:26 Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5Then the Lord came down # Gn 18:21; Ex 3:8; 19:11,18,20 to look over the city and the tower that the men were building. 6The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let Us go down there and confuse # Or confound their language # Lit lip so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” # Lit understand each man the lip of his companion 8So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, # Gn 11:4; Ps 92:9; Lk 1:51 and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name is called Babylon, # In Hb, the name Babylon sounds like the word “confuse.” # Gn 10:10 for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From Shem to Abram
10These are the family records # Gn 2:4; 11:27 of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 12Arpachshad lived 35 years # LXX reads years and fathered Cainan. 13 After he fathered Cainan, Arphachshad lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died. Cainan lived 130 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died ; Gn 10:24; Lk 3:35-36 and fathered Shelah. 13After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 14Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. 15After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 16Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. 17After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. 19After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 20Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. 21After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 22Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. 23After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 24Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah. # Jos 24:2 25After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 26Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, # Gn 17:15; 20:12 and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. # Gn 22:20,23; 24:15 She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai was unable to conceive; # Gn 25:21; 29:31; Ex 23:26; Jdg 13:2-3; 1Sm 2:5; Jb 24:21; Is 54:1; Lk 1:36; 23:29; Gl 4:27; Heb 11:11 she did not have a child.
31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans # Gn 15:7; Neh 9:7; Ac 7:4 to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.
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